A researcher hyped by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, for his work linking vaccines to autism, has been hired by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to lead a major federal study on immunizations, according to The Washington Post.
David Geier and his father Mark Geier have published numerous reports that falsely claim vaccines increase the risk of autism. This research has been cited by vaccine skeptic Kennedy, who has long claimed a connection between vaccines and autism.
Kennedy has spread dubious information about the combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), amid one of the nation’s largest measles outbreaks in the past decade, fueled partly by declining vaccination rates.
Current and former federal health officials told The Post on the condition of anonymity that Geier will lead a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study examining potential links between vaccines and autism—despite the theory having been thoroughly debunked by extensive scientific research.
The publication said public health and autism experts are concerned that the hire would jeopardize the study, erode public confidence in the CDC, and cast doubt on the value of life-saving vaccines.
The causes of autism are unclear. In the late 1990s, British researcher Andrew Wakefield said in a widely debunked study that autism was linked to the MMR jab.
The Daily Beast has contacted the HHS and the CDC for comment.
“This is a worst-case scenario for public health,” said Jessica Steier, a public health researcher who is head of the nonprofit Science Literacy Lab. She said work by the father-and-son research duo is flawed and that they have “demonstrated patterns of an anti-vaccine agenda.”
“It’s a slap in the face to the decades of actual credible research we have,” Steier said.
The Trump administration’s goal “is to prove that vaccines cause autism, even though they don’t,” said Alison Singer, president of the nonprofit organization Autism Science Foundation.
The Post said it’s unclear how or why Geier, who is not a physician and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, was picked to lead the study.
When asked to comment, Geier told the publication: “I don’t have any comment to say. Talk to the secretary. He’s the person that’s in charge.”
